Majority of city council members vote in favor of settling with former City Clerk

TROY -- Things went swimmingly well during Thursday night's City Council meeting, until it was time to vote on the settlement for a lawsuit brought by former City Clerk Bill McInerney for back payment owed to him.

The ordinance to settle the lawsuit, which would give McInerney $3,572.78, an amount equal to 85 percent of alleged lost wages owed to him, passed in a 7-2 vote, with Councilman Rodney Wiltshire, D-At Large, and Councilman Ken Zalewski, D-District 5 voting against the measure. The suit stemmed from a contract adopted by the council which stated that employees not represented by a union were to receive same raises as those in Civil Service Employees Union.

Also passed Thursday in a unanimous vote was a similar settlement for a lawsuit brought by four other former non-represented employees for 85 percent of their promised lost wages.

Those employees were former Personnel Director Alson Spain, former confidential secretary to the corporation counsel Penny Bashford, former confidential secretary to the mayor Prudence Pechenik and former city spokesman Jeff Pirro.

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But Zalewski took issue with McInerney's, who was notoriously known for his involvement in the 2009 Working Families Party ballot fraud scandal, a case in which he was sentenced to 90 days of service in the Rensselaer County Sheriff's work order program.

Zalewski said he felt there was an issue with the settlement, as he felt it could violate the charter, which states the position of city clerk was appointed by the council and its salary was set by the council. He added McInerney had previously declined any type of raise to help the council keep salaries down.

Corporation Counsel Ian Silverman said what was in the charter had no bearing on the lawsuit as he said it was a policy voted in by the council in 2007 and said voting down the measure would not be a good move.

"It's basically saying let's violate what we passed," Silverman said.

Wiltshire made it clear his reason for voting against was not because of the position itself but because it was McInerney, adding he didn't think it was a good idea to pay him back with taxpayer dollars. Councilman Dean Bodnar, R-District 3, said the issue was fairly cut and dry.

"He's due the money just like everyone else," Bodnar said. "Whether you agree with that or not is irrelevant."

An ordinance allowing Troy to join the Albany Pool communities, which already includes Albany, Cohoes, Green Island, Watervliet, and Rensselaer to help develop and implement a plan to reduce the amount of pollutants going into the Hudson River, was also passed unanimously. Pollution has been produced through overflows from the combined sewer system, which all of the municipalities involved are connected to.

Silverman said there has been a draft plan created but said there would be another ordinance in which the city would sign off on a final plan before it was sent to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. He added the other five communities have already signed off on the draft plan.

While the community was cited for violations of the Federal Clean Water Act, the project was actually meant to create a long term plan to control the combined sewer overflows. If the city had failed to contribute to the plan, Rocky Ferraro, executive director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, which has taken lead on the project, said it was in danger of being fined $35,000 a day.